Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

"The best adventure game to hit the PS2"

In case you're unaware of Rygar, lets take a brief history lesson. Rygar originated for the Arcades, then was released for the NES, then the Atari Lynx handheld system. Sadly, I've never tried any of these, but despite the fact that I haven't, Rygar probably lives up to its heritage by giving the game awesome game mechanics, revolutionary visuals, and tons of extras. Well, let's get on with 'da review!

-VISUALS:10/10: Amazing. Gorgeous. Revolutionary. Breathtaking. Awesome. While no words describe how pretty Rygar is, one word will describe your emotions upon viewing them: Wow. Argus is designed with such beauty and flair, and the characters and monsters are animated flawlessly. Everything is very colourful and pretty, and if you're anything like me, you'll spend time not hackin' and slashin' the baddies, but staring at the environments!

-SOUND: Another category Rygar brakes ground in. The music was obviously conducted by an orchestra (a talented one, ofcourse) because no game I have ever played has sounded this good. The tunes can be compared to be on par with cinematic flicks like Lord of the Rings. Overall, Rygar is a pleasure for the ear.

-GAMEPLAY: Rygar is just as fun to play as it is to watch. Rygar has a Diskarmor, a weapon whic is like a shield, chained to his arm. While to the untrained eye it appears to be none but a defensive shield (which it can be by holding L1 or R1), but it can transport Rygar around by hooking onto things and best of all, killing enemies in cool ways. Combat with Diskarmor is simple. Square or O lets you perform a normal attack, which hits multiple enemies but not very strong, and Triangle, which enables a strong attack but can only hit one enemy. There are more then 30 moves, and the downfall to Rygar's Diskarmor is that many are hard to trigger, and it takes a few seconds for the Diskarmor to whip back to Rygar (you can't move or block while using it), which can hamper your progress in boss-battles or intense fights. You can build up your Diskarmor by collecting Build-Up Points, which when used, increase your Diskarmor's ''level'', making it stronger.

Well, that's the combat system. Now the exploration. The gameplay is similar to Castlevania, only in 3D. You can collect many items, and the environments are large and as I've mentioned many times before, pretty. But the downfall to it is that Tecmo decided to use a Devil May Cry-style camera, which is very annoying, especially when moving around in large fields outside. Also this could've been semi-forgiven if Rygar included a First-Person View Mode, but sadly, it fails at doing that.

-CONTROLS: Very responsive. The Diskarmor is tight, movement is what you would expect in an action game, but the camera is annoying. Rygar learns many moves, like Sliding and others. One thing that can cause problems, however, in some portions (mainly platform-style jumping) when you hit X to Jump, Rygar doesn't react the second you press it. It can get annoying, and it's kinda hard to control Rygar's jump.

-OVERALL: Rygar is a god-send. Tight controls, gorgeous visuals, amazing music, and fun, frantic gameplay. You'll play it again and again, and years from now, remember your cherished memories with it. This is a keeper, without a doubt. :) -Jaxijin

SCORECHART:
-VISUALS:10/10 -REPLAY:7/10
-SOUND:10/10 -ORIGINALITY:8/10
-GAMEPLAY:8/10 -OVERALL:9/10
-CONTROLS:9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/15/03, Updated 01/15/03